County adds probable cases, deaths to COVID-19 counts

By Linda Trest, Staff Writer
Posted 1/20/21

This week the Franklin County Health Department (FCHD) has added probable cases/deaths to their daily reports. These probable cases/deaths have not been confirmed by molecular tests. They are added …

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County adds probable cases, deaths to COVID-19 counts

Posted

This week the Franklin County Health Department (FCHD) has added probable cases/deaths to their daily reports. These probable cases/deaths have not been confirmed by molecular tests. They are added “when antigen testing detects proteins specific to the virus are tracked and investigated by the FCHD.”

On Thursday, Jan. 14, 12 probable deaths were added to the record, including an 81-year-old woman from Gerald. On the same day, FCHD noted an additional six deaths confirmed due to COVID-19. One of those was a 77-year-old Gerald man. 

This brings the combined death toll to 131. 

The FCHD listed the original county probable case count as 1,443. By Monday, that count had risen to 1,503.

An additional 341 confirmed cases were added to county totals in the last seven days. That is the lowest weekly total since the last full week in December. 

The week began with six COVID-19 cases in county long-term-care facilities. That number rose to 26 by week’s end. 

Hospitalizations due to the virus stood at 23 a week ago, rose to 27 on Tuesday and has now dropped to 21.

Ten new cases were confirmed in the Gerald area in the past week. Leslie saw only five new cases and Beaufort had seven.